About to sell my house online! (advice welcomed)

Hoploz

I've bought, sold and let many times in the past (between 1998 and 2015) but have never so much as had a whiff of an online agent. There must be a reason for that.

kinger101

argeetee wrote: »

Thanks for your replies. In answer to some of the queries, the reason to go online is simple, to save upwards of £7k! I know my area very well and scrutinise daily other properties available. I've spent time with local agents and with the current market they simply are not sure what price it will sell at. I'd like to go with a good trusted local EA but their fees (even after negotiation) are exorbitant and their contracts designed to tie up my flexibility. I'd like a fair & quick sale, undoubtedly passing on some of the the savings to the buyer. My local EA have contracts which can only be described as draconian. I had wondered about how a potential buyer would feel about meeting the vendor, so may consider using an accompanied viewing option.

Any more thoughts?

You can always negotiate terms with the local agents. If you know your area that well, you ought to have a fair idea of the price.

I think some of the comments about online agents on here are silly. In my village, they shift stuff just as well as the high street agents.

Contessa

When we bought and sold years ago it seemed to be the norm for the seller to show prospective buyers around.

More recently when I was viewing I was sometimes accompanied by the EA. Sometimes the seller was there but wasn't part of the viewing process. Personally, I like the seller to be involved in the viewing as they know far more about the house than the EA and sometimes I felt more likely to make an offer than if I had been shown around by an EA (although didn't because of factors like noise or waiting too long)

In fact, when I bought my present home I was accompanied by the EA (who told me she had never set foot in the house before!) but the viewing was conducted by the seller (who didn't do a very good job of it really but the house sold itself)

So, IME I don't think carrying out the viewings should be a problem but an advantage.

3mph

kinger101 wrote: »

Yes, someone who phoned them up and said I'd like to arrange a viewing, and then subsequently made an offer. You're making it all sound more mysterious than it actually is.

Well I know that our buyer had been looking for a couple of years, she had had the Vendor pull out at the last minute before exchange and ended up renting for 2 years. She was known to most of the EAs, she was lovely and all the EAs really liked her. Our house closely matched what she was after apparently and my EA will have known this.

We have spent the last 4 months going through anything that might be possible so we have dealt with all of the local EA and most of the online ones that sell here.

argeetee

So returning to my opening post, I'd be interested in hearing about other peoples' experience with these online EAs, as they specifically offer some sort of No Safe No Fee (or a reduced contract "exit fee").

Thanks

• Esaleuk £995 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees = £150)
• Hatched £1695 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees = £FREE)
• HouseSimple £995 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees = £195)
• SellMyHome £1499 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees £350)

noddynoo

I buy and sell for a living and both times I've used online anything agent and conveyancing it was a catalogue of errors and much as I find agents a pita they are the best way to negotiate and get the transaction to its conclusion Friend has done Purple Bricks and her sale fell through twice with them and went with local and she moves mid month after wasting 7 months last year DON'T DO IT!!!!

yoshiyella

argeetee wrote: »

So returning to my opening post, I'd be interested in hearing about other peoples' experience with these online EAs, as they specifically offer some sort of No Safe No Fee (or a reduced contract "exit fee").

Thanks

• Esaleuk £995 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees = £150)
• Hatched £1695 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees = £FREE)
• HouseSimple £995 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees = £195)
• SellMyHome £1499 payable on completion (early withdrawal from market fees £350)

Never heard of these online agents.

We used Housenetwork and can't praise them highly enough.
They did everything apart from the viewings and cost us about £800 up front.

Hoof_Hearted

I should have thought it was pretty obvious why the OP was considering an online agent -- to save shed loads of money! We sold using House Network a few years back and it went smoothly with no problems at all. We did our own viewings, which I consider a positive. Nobody can answer questions better than the current owner. Agents around here expect to charge one and a half percent i.e. £9,000 (inc. VAT) on a £500K house. House Network: £775.

GraceF125

There was a house we were interested in last year which was with one of the online agents you mentioned.

And from a buyer's point of view it was incredibly irritating trying to arrange a viewing. We nearly didn't bother as the system they used was so fixed with no flexibility to say something like 'whatever time of day suits the vendor' or to re-arrange without going through the whole process again, and we ended up having to wait over 10 days before we managed to get to see the house. I did miss having an EA to talk to, even just to fix up an appointment or find out more about the sellers' situation before we viewed. We also had to register our details with the company in order to get a viewing and were then plagued by follow-up calls for the next few weeks, basically always trying to sell us one of their services. I had to block their numbers in the end after asking politely twice that they never call me again.

It definitely put me off, the house wasn't quite right for us which was lucky as I wouldn't have been keen going through the sales process with what just seemed like a call-centre.

new2allthis

I've bought through purplebricks.com and am about to sell through them too. I completely understand why you wouldn't want to use a highstreet EA - charlatans many of them in my experience, or think they know what you want/need better than you do!

As a buyer, the purplebricks.com properties were as easy to find as anyone else's - they advertise on rightmove etc. As a vendor, I have found them to be efficient in providing information and have taken a great deal of time to ensure I understand all the options available and how the process works. Very responsive to my needs (unlike my letting agent or any of the highstreet EAs that I viewed through when looking for my current home). No complaints so far.

Good luck with the sale!